


'Tis the Damn Season

by WishaDream



Category: Original Work
Genre: Character Study, Established Relationship, F/F, Married Couple, POV Second Person, and check out the game Control in which they are found, and existence is a prison, but not really, but with less metaphors and questions about the subtext, conversation practice, conveying character through conversation, cute little writing excercise, eavesdropping on conversation, fanfic cafe, fanfic cafe where eavesdropping on couple's conversations is encouraged, feel free to imagine the couple of your own current obsession, i am presently enamored with them and projected some of that on the Reader, i was inspired by those english reading assignments that were basically just talking heads, i'm FINE, if you are not obsessed with jesse faden and emily pope check them out, just trying something different with POv, like the short story hills like white elephants, making holiday plans, you could even imagine teh couple as male because life is meaningless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:33:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28559871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishaDream/pseuds/WishaDream
Summary: While at lunch, you overhear two woman talking about their upcoming holiday plans
Kudos: 1





	'Tis the Damn Season

You take a table along the wall at your favorite café. It’s your lunch break and you are eager to partake of the food and the atmosphere of the cozy diner.

Around you the room buzzes with activity as the latest pop hit plays softly in the background.

As your eyes scan the room you notice a woman sitting at a table parallel to yours. She’s cute, hair pulled back in a pony tail that bounces along with her as her knee bobs beneath the table.

You’re a little startled when she suddenly turns, fixing you with a confident smirk as she mouths, “How are you?”

You start to respond but then the woman adjusts her position in her chair, resting her chin on her hand as she again smiles, this time coyly as she mouths something.

You frown, confused, until you notice the woman reach up to smooth down her eyebrows, her gaze intense as she stares—behind you. You turn, realizing there is a mirror stretched across the wall. Now you understand, she was not talking to you, but rehearsing her greeting for whoever she’s waiting for.

Your suspicions are confirmed as the woman checks her phone then looks up, smiling as her expectant gaze turns to the door of the restaurant.

Her practiced composure immediately dissipates as another woman enters. While the first woman was dressed in casual attire of jeans and a t-shirt with leather jacket, the new woman is dressed in business attire, black slacks, freshly pressed dress shirt, hair neatly pulled back in a bun.

While at first, she looks severe, on seeing the first woman her face lights up with a smile as she heads over.

Before she can get there, in her exuberance, the first woman ends up hitting her knee against the table as she starts to stand. The items on the table shake as several utensils fall to the ground.

“Shit.”

Her eyes lift from the fallen cutlery as the other woman comes over.

‘Hey,” the first woman sounds shy as she picks up the fallen items, putting them back on the table before they both sit down.

“Sorry I’m late; it took me a bit to find a parking spot.”

“Oh, no problem. I just got here.”

As soon as they are both seated their hands reach across the table to touch each other. From the way their fingers intertwine it’s like their hands have felt empty up till that moment and it’s not until they are together again that they feel whole.

They order their food and a new set of utensils before the freshly arrived woman sits up straighter and says, “You wanted to discuss our holiday plans this year?”

You haven’t been able to catch either woman’s name as of yet, so you give them the names of the characters you are presently obsessed with. Jesse, for the one with the ponytail, and Emily, for the business woman.

Jesse lets out a tired sigh as her body slumps down in her chair, “Ugh, yes. One would think this would get easier with each passing year, but no, it only seems to get harder.”

Emily looks sympathetic as she squeezes Jesse’s hand. “I know. I keep trying to find a solution that can make everyone happy, but…I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”

Her eyes drop to the side with a look of defeat on her face. Immediately Jesse’s torso slams into the table like if she was going to give Emily a hug and forgot the table was there. After letting out an embarrassed grunt she settles for gripping Emily’s hand tighter as she gives her a reassuring smile.

“It’s okay, I’ve come up with a solution,” from the way she smiles it’s apparent this isn’t something Jesse usually does, but whatever she has come up with has to be grand from the way she glows with the declaration, “Since both our families want to have us for the holidays, why don’t both our families just get together and do a joint holiday celebration?”

The way she says it makes it seem so simple, so easy, but from the way Emily nibbles on her lip it is clear there are some issues with the plan.

Though she looks hesitant to put a damper on Jesse’s excitement, she finally concedes to reason as she informs her, “If we did it that way it would mean having to invite my brother Jessica’s family as well, since they also want to spend time with them over the holidays.”

Jesse nods like that is a perfectly fine addition.

“But then Jessica’s brother’s husband’s family would also have to attend since they also want to be host.”

Jesse frowned as it looked like slowly she was starting to see the flaw in her plan.

Letting out a low groan, her head dropped back so that it rested on the top of her chair, “Okay, I see the problem now.” She lifted her hand, waving it across the sky like she was painting a picture with the movement, “By the end of it we’d probably end up inviting the whole world.”

Emily smiled hopefully, “It could help break down some barriers.”

“Or put more up.”

They laughed together as Emily’s expression dropped into a thoughtful frown.

“You know,” Jesse twirled her finger around the rim of her cup, making it hum as she said, “it would be so much easier if, when couples got married, each side picked a holiday they would host. My family would get thanksgiving, yours Christmas. Then your brother could spend Thanksgiving with your parents and my brother could do Hanukkah with mine. That wouldn’t be as complicated as getting all the families together, right?”

Emily looked like she was running the numbers through her head before saying, “No, it doesn’t seem as complicated. Seems like a pretty simple solution to a complex problem.”

Jesse brightened before Emily reminded her, “But neither of our parents would go for it.”

Jesse’s shoulders dropped, “I know. Why do people insist on making things more complicated than they need to be?”

“Because life just seems to be about making life more complicated than it needs to be.”

“That’s depressing. You know, there is one more option,” Jesse looked hopeful as a smile stretched across her face. Leaning forward, as if their family was sitting nearby and she didn’t want them to hear, she whispered, “We could just not go.”

Emily laughed lightly as she shook her head with a look like “You know that’s not possible.”

Jesse’s lip jutted out in a pout as she let a puff of air out through her nose, “It wouldn’t be that big a deal if your mom wasn’t such a Christmas freak. She was *so* excited when she found out I was Jewish and didn’t celebrate Christmas because that meant “not having to share you for the holidays.” I think she purposefully forgets my family still celebrates a holiday. Which means we have to go from one family holiday function, driving to a whole other state to celebrate an entirely different holiday. It’s just too much stress to pile into one month. Why do we do this to ourselves?”

Whether she wanted an answer or not, Emily gave it as she said, “Humans want to be happy, but the more humans you get into a space the harder it is because we all have different views on what it means to be happy. This can cause arguments and fights and in the end we make each other miserable.”

“Wow, that’s deep.” Jesse gazed at Emily in wonder as if this was the first time she’d heard the woman say something so profound, but you’re sure that isn’t the case. It’s more likely the case that the woman is still enamored with her companion’s intellect.

She’s not the only one. Emily looks to find everything Jesse does adorable, from her bobbing knee, to the way she’s able to illicit a sound from her cup. At one point she even hands over her napkin to Jesse when the woman starts to look especially restless.

“Can’t we just skip it this year?” Jesse proceeds to tear pieces off the napkin, curling the pieces between her fingers before tearing off another piece, “We did just see them for Thanksgiving.”

“One holiday does not cancel out another.”

“In your mother’s mind. You know, your mom is still trying to convert me to love Christmas as much as her. I buy her one Christmas snow globe while we’re dating to impress her and suddenly she thinks there’s room for me to grow to love the holiday. She’s not going to be happy until I’m standing on the roof with her, drinking egg nog while singing carols and setting up a blow up fat man. She can be so annoying.”

“I *know* you love my mom.”

“Not around the holidays. Mid-November she becomes this Christmas monster and it’s all gingerbread cookies and holiday cheer with her.” Jesse shuddered as if recalling previous years as she turned the napkin around and started to tear apart another corner off it, “I don’t like Christmas and I don’t like your mom this time of year.”

Emily held up two fingers as she said, “My mom and Christmas,” she overlapped her fingers, “Are not the same.”

“You sure?”

Emily looked amused as she pursed her lips and made a face at Jesse.

Putting the napkin down, Jesse reached across the table as she brushed Emily’s cheek with her thumb, “When are we going to start making our own family traditions? Start having our own holiday get together we force our future children to attend with their spouses.”

“Oh, I think that will happen around—never.”

A groan came from Jesse as Emily picked up the pieces of the napkin and deposited them into an empty breadbasket for easy disposal later.

“You know when we start expanding our family it’s only going to get worse. The parents are only going to want to see us more and holidays will be especially important to them because it’s when they can shower gifts on the grandkids.”

“Oh, I know,” Jesse rested her cheek on her hand as she blew away a strand of hair that had come loose, “I’ve seen how they splurge on your nieces and nephews. Did they get you as many gifts on Christmas at their age?”

A thoughtful moment then, “I think it’s about equal. But I feel it’s a little different since as grandparents they only get to see the kids for a few hours at a time. To them the kid can still appear perfect little angels because they don’t deal with the same stressful moments as the parents. When they *were* the parents they got the full experience that reminded them their children weren’t perfect--.”

“Impossible. You are perfectly perfect in every way all the time.”

A grateful smile as she continued, “And have moments when they get on your nerves. Not that you love then any less, but your love has…not ebb and flow. What am I trying to say?”

“It’s easier to find reasons to spoil the grandkids, while when you were their age they could come up with several reasons why they didn’t need to buy Greg the dump truck he wanted.”

Emily smiled, “Yes, that’s it. Thank you.”

Jesse smiled as she motioned between the pair, ‘We’re on the same wavelength. So, what’s the plan for gifts this year?”

“We’re doing Secret Santa.”

“Who’s our Secret Santa? Er, who are we Secret Santa-ing for?” her frown deepened, “Our secret Santa-er…What is the correct thing to say?”

“I don’t know, but we are buying a gift for my brother. Greg.”

“And what does he want this year? A plasma screen TV.”

Emily smiled in amusement at some shared joke, “No. He hasn’t sent in his list yet.”

“What? It’s December 1st, the deadline should be Thanksgiving day and if you don’t get it in by then “No presents for you.” She tapped her finger on the table to emphasize her point.

Emily laughed as she replied with a slight German accent, “No soup for you.”

“Yeah. Hey. Maybe that’s what we should do; get him a subscription to a soup of the month club.”

“You know my brother hates soup.”

“But every time he sees the soup in the mail it will remind him that next year he better get in his list by Thanksgiving or,” she paused before continuing dramatically, “Suffer the consequences.”

“That *would* teach him.”

“How many reminders have you sent him?”

“Uh,” one could almost hear the mental ticking in her mind, “Just three.”

‘Three?” Jesse looked doubtful at the number.

“Three this week.”

‘Really? I was expecting that to be the number for today.”

“No. For today I’ve only sent him two texts,” Jesse covered a laugh as Emily said, “I’m sure he’s just busy and hasn’t had time to figure out what he wants.”

“Or he doesn’t want anything. We’re adults. If there’s anything we want we buy it. We should just skip the whole present thing and only do it for the kids. Once you’re an adult if you can’t get it yourself you probably don’t need it so why have someone else buy it for you?”

“I know. But again--.”

“Your mom and her traditions.”

Emily nodded.

Jesse let out a wistful sigh as she rested her chin on her hand, “Remember when holidays used to be simpler. Screw going back to the 1950s, I would go back to being a kid. Back to when there were adults who took care of everything for me and I could just chill. There was less stress then.”

Emily nodded as she let out her own thoughtful sigh, “Yeah, the only stress came from the adults trying to put unnecessary pressures on you that you didn’t need to deal with at that age.”

Jesse’s brow furrowed with concern as she squeezed Emily’s hand in a signal of “its okay, they can’t hurt you anymore. If they try I will punch them in the nose.”

She had a very expressive face.

“Yeah, that’s stupid. And then they continue to put all these pressures on people up into adulthood with things that even then don’t need to be dealt with.”

“Like trying to ensure everyone comes down for the holidays. That the house is in pristine condition like a magazine spread. Nothing says you have to turn it into a whole production.”

Jesse smiled, “Who’s the one complaining about your mom now?”

Emily laughed lightly as her eyes drifted down to their hands as she rubbed her thumb against Jesse’s hand. “You’re right.”

“At this point I’m ready to give up on all holidays. They’ve all become so commercialized and stress inducing. I can’t think of a single holiday that is enjoyable to me as an adult.”

As she spoke, Emily rested her chin on her hand as her head tilted to the side with a soft smile on her lips. She looked completely enraptured with everything Jesse was saying, listening with complete attention like every word was the most precious thing to her.

“Now I have to be the one to drive myself to the various family gatherings instead of being able to sit in the back and listen to music or play games,” the way Jesse was talking about it, it sounded like the greatest injustice as she passionately continued, “I’m the one who has to decorate the house instead of waking up the next morning to find the home sparkling with lights and the scent of freshly baked rugelach. And I have to be the one to figure out how to wrap the various gifts instead of finding them perfectly set up underneath the menorah.”

Emily looked to completely relate to Jesse’s words as she nodded along.

“That does it, next year we go to Aspen on our own.”

Jesse looked hopeful as she waited for Emily to agree. Instead the woman said, “I feel like the only way that would work is if both our parents were taken over by pod people who didn’t care about the holidays.”

Seeing Jesse’s disappointment she offered, “We could do it in addition to the family get together.”

“No,” Jesse sounded tired just thinking about it, “it would just end up being more work and wouldn’t actually help us unwind after spending time with our families. It would be more planning and packing and stress.”

“We could try it one year, just to see if it helps.”

Jesse brightened as if something Emily had said reminded her of something, “Speaking of doing new things this year—I was thinking this year we could wear matching holiday sweaters.”

Emily’s eyebrows lifted as if that was the last thing she’d ever expected to hear from the other woman, “But you hate it when my mom makes us wear Christmas sweaters for the family holiday card.”

“I do, but hear me out. Picture a blue sweater with a Menorah on it and at the background,” she paused as if unsure how to describe it, her confidence replaced by uncertainty as she off handedly said, “those jagged holiday sweater lines,” then with confidence regained, “with an alternating David’s star and dreidel between. Then for you a red sweater with the Nativity star with reindeer and polar bears between the lines.”

“Okay, I get your sweater’s themes, but what do reindeer and polar bears have to do with Jesus?”

“You tell me, Miss Christmas.”

A light laugh, “What about a shepherd’s crook and camels for the magi.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. I’ll tell them to do that instead.” She pulled out her phone as she started to type out a note.

“Wait, who are you telling?”

“The people that are making them. I found this online place that makes custom sweaters.”

Emily frowned, “Those are going to be really expensive and we would only end up wearing them once a year. And then maybe only one time and then never again.”

“In the long run they will pay for themselves.”

Emily did not look to agree but again, did not want to crush Jesse’s dreams, “I don’t know if you’re set on the whole holiday theme, but we could still wear matching sweaters with a slight nod to our holidays.”

Jesse set her phone down, looking eager to hear what Emily was going to come up witht, “What do you mean?”

“You wear your blue “Stars around my Scars” pullover and I’ll wear my red one.”

The table shook as Jesse suddenly slammed her hand down on the surface. While you are startled by this, Emily looks unfazed, like she is completely used to this kind of reaction.

“That is brilliant. And then we’ll also be repping for the other holiday bay, Taylor Swift. Is that sacrilegious?”

“Most definitely.”

Jesse laughed lightly before her expression dropped into a dewy-eyed gaze, “Man, do I want to marry you.”

The two became lost in each other’s eyes as they interlaced fingers on both hands, the gold of their wedding bands shimmering in the lights of the restaurant.

“You always come up with the best solutions.”

“That’s why they pay me the big bucks.”

The sound of Emily’s phone going off broke them from their revelry as the woman checked to find her lunch alarm was sounding.

“My lunch break is almost over. I should be heading out.”

Jesse’s eyes widened as she noticed the time on the display, “Oh shoot, is it that time already? I’ve gotta go.”

She gave Emily a quick peck on the cheek before hurriedly grabbing her things. In her rush she dropped several things, letting out a string of curses before she could get everything together again as she rushed out the door.

Emily watched all this with an amused smile before calmly gathering up her own things and heading out.

It’s then you realize your own lunch break has come to an end as you look to your plate to find it empty. Though hypnotized with the conversation, you managed to absentmindedly eat the food, the flavor of which you do not recall. But this is not the first time this has happened while eating at the Fanfic Café. 

End

____

Ensuing Questions

Q: How did these two meet?

A: I do not know. These two just had their random conversation in my head, but did not share such information. If you ever find out, please let me know as I am also curious. 

Q: How did the pair end up spending their holiday in quarantine?

A: The couple enjoyed staying home, snuggling on the couch as they drank their favorite beverages. Emily, hot cocoa, and Jesse, Teavana Berry Kiwi Colada that has cooled to room temperature.

They enjoyed the beverages while watching their favorite holiday movies, Jesse’s being Die Hard 1&2 and Emily’s being a continued holiday tradition of bingeing her favorite Jane Austen movie iterations. The culmination of the marathon always ends with them speaking in British accents for the next three days and curtsying at each other every time they enter the same room.

“Would you like to take a turn about the garden?”

“Oh yes, it should do wonders for my constitution.”


End file.
